HAMILTON BULLDOGS
Another day, and it’s another Bulldogs trade
Nic Mattinen is on the move. Again.
The Hamilton Bulldogs sent the 20-year-old defenceman to Oshawa just before the overage deadline at noon Wednesday. In return they got another overage player, Eric Henderson, along with London’s second-round pick in 2020 and Peterborough’s thirdround pick in 2022.
Mattinen, an Ottawa native, came to Hamilton from Flint at last year’s trade deadline. He also spent two seasons with London before a four-month stint with the Firebirds, and won a Memorial Cup with the Knights in 2016.
That makes Oshawa his fourth stop in as many OHL campaigns.
Steve Staios, the Bulldogs president and general manager, said in a statement that Mattinen was an integral part of the team’s OHL championship run and “a tremendous young man who has a very bright future.”
His counterpart in Oshawa, meanwhile, noted Mattinen’s wealth of playoff experience, “which all along (has) been what we felt was important to our group.”
“He’s motivated to win again in his final OHL season and we couldn’t be happier to have him,” Generals vice president and general manager Roger Hunt added, also in a statement.
In a calendar year with the Bulldogs, Mattinen amassed 16 goals and 38 points in 66 regularseason games. His 30 points this season are 10th-most among OHL blueliners and his 13 goals tie the league high.
Henderson, a six-foot-two, 190-pound left winger from Kingsville, had 11 goals and 19 assists in 40 games for Oshawa, where he was traded by London in 2016. That makes he and Mattinen former teammates.
It’s unclear when Henderson will make his debut with the Bulldogs.
The team did not expect the 20-year-old to be in the lineup for Hamilton’s road game in Saginaw on Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs have another cross-border road game against the Flint Firebirds on Friday.
The trade is the fourth of the week for the Bulldogs, who also sent captain MacKenzie Entwistle to Guelph, dealt overager Brandon Saigeon to Oshawa and
acquired Czech import Jan Jenik from Flint.
They also picked up Tag Bertuzzi before Christmas, but he is out of the lineup indefinitely after injuring his shoulder in his first game with the team.
Since the Bertuzzi deal, the Bulldogs have recouped 10 draft picks, including five secondround picks (one in 2019, three in ’20 and one in ’22) and five thirdround
picks (one each in ’20, ’21, ’22, ’23 and ’24), and given up one, maybe two, for Jenik (a fifthround pick in ’20 and a conditional fourth-round pick in ’24).
Building for the future, however, has come at a steep cost.
On top of losing a trio team leaders — Entwistle wore the ‘C’ while Mattinen and Saigeon were alternate captains — the Bulldogs have off-loaded key scorers
with the deadline approaching.
Together, Entwistle, Mattinen and Saigeon had 53 goals this campaign, which accounts for more than one-third of the team’s overall production and nearly half of its scoring on the power play. The trade deadline for nonOA players is Thursday at noon.